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Recyclable Paper Laptop
How often do you buy a new computer? After two years? Four? For such complex products, we go through them pretty quick, and that adds up to a lot of ultra harmful e-waste. It’s something computer companies are already striving for, but designer Je Sung Park is taking the idea of a recyclable computer to its furthest limits. His Recyclable Paper Laptop is made from pulp and reprocessed materials, and would be broken down into the…
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selling out or cashing in? a new paradigm for advertising
have people heard of Ad.ly. Pretty interesting to connect individuals and advertisers like this. Kind of paid word of mouth. You could voice potential concerns from an editorial integrity stand point, but you could also see a future where individuals get to endorse the brands they believe in and get paid for it. Just met the founder, and he seems to be a really good guy so I look forward to seeing where this goes… -
Wireless Electricity Is Near
Imagine a world where cords do not exist. Where surge protectors and extension cords are obsolete and multiple wall sockets are unnecessary. What if your electronic devices could be powered by air? Sounds like something out of a Sci-Fi movie, but that world of ultra-convenience is right around the corner, according to WiTricity, a Massachusetts-based company that says it will have wireless electricity on the market within the next two years. It’s a bold statement and the… -
Digital World Explorer
The digital ethnographer Michael Wesch on the dark side of social media, what we learned from Iran, and why the future of the web depends on human interests—not market interests. As a graduate student in Papua New Guinea, Michael Wesch studied how the introduction of books and literacy changed government and society. Now, as a professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University, Wesch examines how digital media is changing human interaction. His YouTube video “Web 2.0… -
Ideas for Cities: Google Analytics for Learning
Google Analytics for Learning
Cities should measure the impact of learning more closely, because education reduces unemployment and poverty and creates a greater culture of ingenuity—producing jobs and individual entrepreneurs. The city and its citizens should use better analytics to make it clear why investments in learning and the learning infrastructure more than pays for themselves. Learning solves problems. This is part eight of a continuing brainstorm on the future of cities, inaugurated at the Velocity conference in September 2009. We’ll post a new idea each day until we run out,… -
Heavenly Fuel from Garbage, Weeds, and Pond Scum
Algae-based fuel is a massive leap from corn ethanol, and could already be working within our existing transportation infrastructure—if only its development hadn’t been scrapped by the Clinton Administration. In the first two editions of this series, we’ve talked about the shortcomings of petroleum as a transportation energy source, as well as the limitations of first generation biofuels, like ethanol and biodiesel, which suffer from the inescapable flaw of directly competing with our food supplies. Although I believe… -
Pentagon Unveils New Jelly Robot
The Pentagon has unveiled a new robot that looks like a blob of goo. Called the “chemical robot,” or ChemBot, it moves by changing its shape, by inflating and deflating different areas. Researchers say the research could lead to robots that can seep through cracks, and help rescue people trapped in collapsed buildings. -
Bloggers Behind Bars
Global Voices, defenders of free speech online, have launched a new tool called Threatened Voices that lets you look up where bloggers have been arrested or threatened by their governments. China, Iran, and Egypt look particularly bad. And here in the States, Elliott Madison was arresed for using Twitter to help G20 protesters evade the cops. Via Boing Boing. -
AYM ’09: Moldova’s “Twitter Revolution”
Interviews from the Alliance of Youth Movements summit: Natalia Morari. On the 6th of April of this year, 15,000 Moldovans rallied in the streets the day after their national election to protest the Communist Party’s rigged victory. It might have looked like any post-election protest in an emerging democracy but there was an important difference: This protest was organized entirely through new media—Twitter, email and text messages, and social networking sites. The number of peaceful protesters continued… -
World Building in a Crazy World — by Jonathan Harris
An enjoyable collection of thoughts about where the internet is (or could be) going… Original article: Jonathan Harris . World Building in a Crazy World
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Technology
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